Mark Graff, former CISO for NASDAQ current CEO Tellagraff and board advisor to
BlackRidge Technology International Inc. Comments on HBO Hacks

The hack against HBO that was announced on August 17th is the third in as many
weeks. Of the three, this one may be the simplest technically: it seem to entail a
few stolen passwords. Now this one is unlikely to have as big an impact financially
as the leak earlier this month of future episodes of hit series like Game of
Thrones. But it sure makes me wonder why a huge entertainment target like HBO can’t
seem to tie down its systems. No company can withstand a sustained attack from a
nation state, like the one from North Korea against Sony. But if we are talking
about fairly simple attacks, like the theft of Facebook passwords through social
engineering or similar methods, one has to question HBO’s commitment to security and
the quality of their security training. Get it together, folks; this ain’t gonna
stop anytime soon."